


it looks ugly, but it's clean (don't fuss over me)

by magicandlight



Series: The States [17]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers, Statetalia
Genre: Angst, Civil War, Evangeline deserves better, Gen, I know, Jackson is an asshole, Physical Abuse, The Confederacy Sucks, but it isn't graphic, mentions of animal abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-12-18 05:31:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18243353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicandlight/pseuds/magicandlight
Summary: twelve times Evangeline didn't run, and one time she did





	it looks ugly, but it's clean (don't fuss over me)

**Author's Note:**

> title from Hozier's Cherry Wine

(one)

Jackson orders them around like they're less than him, like a collective century of experience is beneath him.

"Daniel should be making the war plans-" Evangeline offers after three minutes of Jackson pretending he has the training to do it himself.

Alfred had never raised a hand to them as children. He'd grounded them, taken things, made them sit in corners, given them extra chores but he had never  _hit_  them.

He said all beating them would do is teach them to obey out of fear.

So when Jackson slaps her, Evangeline doesn't expect it.

She raises a hand to her cheek. For once, she's glad she's as dark as she is, dark enough that her face doesn't show a red hand mark.

The room is silent.

Evangeline doesn't wait for any of them to defend her. She doesn't want to risk that they won't.

She smooths her expression out and tilts her chin up to meet Jackson's gaze, and at that moment it doesn't matter that she's at his feet.

Evangeline is one of the most dangerous creatures in this room.

She curves her mouth into a smile like a bayonet. "Elizabeth isn't the only one here with empire blood thrumming in her veins and I never forget, Jackson."

She stands, head held high and spine straight, a girl made by an empire at its strongest.

And she walks away, knowing she has won this battle.

 

(two)

Drew's lip is split and Evangeline does not go blind with fury or shake with righteous anger.

It isn't in her nature. Every decision is calculated.

Her rapier is in her hands and she holds it in her hand, feeling the familiar weight.

Jackson goes still when she presses it against his exposed throat. Hard enough that a thin trickle of blood traces a path down to his collarbone.

She can't kill him unless she wants to sign her own death warrant. Pity.

Evangeline makes her voice unaffected and detached. One of her greatest weaknesses are her emotions, and if she wavers she's no longer a threat.

She almost sounds bored. She gives him the sharp smile no one likes to counteract that. "Hit me if you like. I warned you already. But touch Andrew again and I will gut you like a pig."

Jackson manages to smile back despite the blade pressed to his throat. "I wouldn't doubt it, Evangeline."

Evangeline dips her head in recognition that she has made a deal with the devil.

The rapier is away from Jackson's neck and held loosely at Evangeline's side again.

She doesn't put her back to Jackson as she leaves.

 

(three)

Evangeline stops in the doorway to stare at the ruin made out of her bedroom.

Someone has taken it apart to find something.

She goes back downstairs and finds Jackson lounging on one of the living room couches, her rapiers on the table in front of him.

Both of them, even though one of them is dulled and meant only for practice fencing.

Jackson grins at her and he looks nothing like America in that moment.

He picks the one she keeps sharp, and she only notices the thick leather gloves when he grabs the blade and twists until it warps under the pressure.

And he keeps going, until the metal is in pieces at his feet. And then he does the same to her practice blade.

Inside, she's screaming. Outside, she is a statue, frozen in place.

He tosses the handle at her feet. "Go on now, Evangeline. I'm sure you have something to do."

Numb, she picks it up.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Evangeline is sitting on her bed, staring at the broken handle of her rapier when Ginny comes in.

"Hey, I'm doing the laundry, you have any-" She cuts herself off when she looks around the room. Evangeline hasn't started cleaning up. "What happened in here?"

Evangeline doesn't answer.

Ginny's eyes fall on the handle of the rapier.

Her lips thin, hands balling into fists.

She exhales slowly, clearly trying to control her temper, before she leaves.

Evangeline assumes that's the end of it, but a minute later Ginny is back with her rapier in hand. It's simpler, older, but well-loved.

Ginny lays it on the bed. "It's yours now, I hope you don't go waving this one around too."

Her words are almost mocking, but her tone is serious and it gets the message through.  _Don't use it until you have too_. 

 

(four)

They all have their talents, little things that further separate them from humans. Obviously, some were more powerful than others. Cass was charismatic in a way that usually led to people doing what she wanted, and Alfred said she could talk her way out of anything; Scarlett could always find a way to help, always find the words someone needed to hear; Ginny could soothe and calm with just a touch.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Evangeline had still been young when Alfred had sat her down and explained the dubious morality of her gift. How it was wrong to use it on her siblings just because they were annoying. 

Back then, he had called it _persuasion_.

Evangeline called it  _mind-control_  when she was older, and she stopped using it.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The house is empty, it's just her and Drew and Jackson, with Flora knocked out upstairs trying to recover from a shrapnel wound that had torn into her stomach. 

Austin is in town trying to refill the medical supplies- they had run out of bandages and had to cut sheets to wrap Flora's stomach.

The others are gone, fighting or coming back from fighting.

So they're alone: Evangeline and Drew and Jackson.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Jackson looks like he might actually kill Drew this time.

The basket of uniforms she'd just taken off the clothesline tumbles, and she's reaching for her gift first.

" _Stop it!_ " It sounds strange even to her own ears, echoing and lilting. It sounds powerful.

Jackson's arm freezes in mid-air.

Evangeline breathes out heavily.

It'll only last so long. Personifications were made of sterner stuff than humans, and she hadn't used her gift in a long time. Jackson would break through the command quickly.

"Drew, run.  _Go_." If her voice is still laced with her ability, she doesn't notice. 

Drew scrambles up, more blood and bruises than boy.

She doesn't know where he goes. She never wants to know, just in case she's asked.

If she runs, Jackson will hunt her down after this.

She closes her eyes.

She doesn't want to see it coming.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The corner on the cabinet cuts her temple when Jackson slams her into it, and then he holds her face over one of the ranges on the stove top like he's gonna shove her onto it.

"If you ever use your little mind-control talent on me again, girl, I'll cut your tongue out of your head and sew your mouth closed."

Evangeline does not cry. She is clinging to the scraps of her dignity, and this the hill she'll die on: she will never cry in front of Jackson, she will never give him the satisfaction.

He lets go and Evangeline stumbles away from the heat. 

 

(five)

Sometimes, she sees something in the way Jackson looks at her. It makes her feel sick.

(And sometimes, she thinks he just might look at Scarlett the same way.)

Sometimes, she's glad that she's black, that she's the darkest state, if it means that Jackson will never act on whatever violent fantasies he has. 

 

(six)

Tim comes back a week after a battle and three days after he should have been back, and they all know. He isn't quite happy, but he looks a little less haunted. 

Jackson narrows his eyes at Tim. "Where were you?"

And Tim freezes and Evangeline offers a quick prayer to whatever's listening that what she's about to do doesn't get her killed. "He was dead, obviously. Or are you not  _nation_  enough to feel the death of one of your  _states_?"

Everything about that sentence is an insult- from her smirk to the Cajun accent coloring it to the emphasis on  _nation_  and  _states_. 

Jackson's eyes promise retribution but Tim mouths  _thank you_  at her and Evangeline just smiles. 

 

(seven)

This house is poison. It is a slow, slow, suffocating death. She can't fight with her men because they wouldn't want her there. She can't fight in this house because to fight is to make it worse.

Evangeline has always learned very quickly, and here is what she knows: it hurts less when you close your eyes and relax. If you don’t tense for it, the bruises are better. Shock absorption, or something.

So she doesn't fight back. She doesn't fight back when Jackson hits her and she doesn't fight back when he shoves her into the banister so hard she feels a rib snap.

She doesn't fight back. She contents herself with shielding Drew and suppresses the urge to break Jackson's face.

 

(eight) 

Caden punches Jackson in the face after he sees the still-healing bruise on Evangeline's wrist.

He punches Jackson and Jackson hits back until they're on the ground with his hands around Caden's neck and Ginny is screaming  _stop it stop it stop it_ , hands scrambling over Jackson's shoulders as she tries to pull him back until she finally gives up and presses her fingers against the nape of his neck.

Evangeline realizes what she's doing the second Jackson's shoulders go loose, the second Caden gasps for breath and scrambles up and Jackson lets him.

She's seen Ginny's talent before, seen her soothe younger states back to sleep after nightmares. Josh had been a colicky baby and Ginny was the only one who could get him to stop crying.

Evangeline's never seen Ginny use her talent like a weapon.

She takes in the way Ginny seems unsteady and how pale she's gone and realizes it's because it  _isn't_  meant to be a weapon. 

Ginny has poured everything she had into making Jackson stop. Caden steadies her with a hand on her arm, trying to put himself in front of her when Jackson stands. 

Jackson shoves Ginny back and tells her to stop trying to mind control him and stomps off. 

 _Probably to sleep it off_ , Evangeline thinks bitterly, and she hopes that it knocks him out for days.

 

(nine)

Caden is always angry these days. 

He's practically vibrating with suppressed rage as he picks glass out of her hands. Even Genevieve, who usually winds around his ankles and meows plaintively at him until he pets her is keeping her distance.

He stops and exhales heavily. "Why do you stay?" 

Evangeline pretends she doesn't know what he's talking about. "What?"

"Why do you stay here? You could go to New Orleans but you haven't, so why do you stay here if he's just going to hurt you?"

 _Because she has to. Because of Drew. Because she won't survive finding him bleeding on her doorstep again. Because Jackson wants Scarlett and doesn't seem like the type to take no as an answer._ _Because Flora is in love with Scarlett and if Jackson does something Flora is going to step in between them and get hurt._ _Because a few days ago, Jackson has almost strangled Caden on the foyer floor._

Evangeline closes her eyes. "Caden, can we not do this tonight?"

Caden looks like he wants to protest but he nods sharply. "Fine."

 

(ten)

Jackson breaks Evangeline arm when he pushes her down the last two porch steps, and then he makes her finish sweeping and she doesn't have time to set it before it heals crooked.

Austin rebreaks her arm after three shots of tequila because he looked like he was going to be sick when she asked him to do it. Evangeline doesn't make a sound and Austin is nice enough to pretend she isn't silently crying. He sets it so gently, and Evangeline has the sudden thought that one day he's going to be a very good doctor. 

He stays with her that night, managing to tuck his too-long limbs into the chair beside her bed and get comfortable enough to sleep. She doesn't know how he does it, to be honest. Genevieve appears from god knows where, fur as pure white as always, and lays curled against Evangeline's side.

In the morning, there's nothing to show that her arm was ever broken.

Jackson never says sorry, or acknowledges that it ever happened. If it wasn't for Austin, Evangeline would think that she imagined it.

 

(eleven)

Jackson flings Genevieve against a wall because Evangeline breaks half a set of dishes (it wasn't her fault, her hands were shaking from battles and she couldn't stop them.)

And while Genevieve is fine, just agitated, Evangeline can't get the image of her familiar laying motionless out of her head. 

A week later, Tim is passing Genevieve over to Kendall. Wes writes Ginny all about how Genevieve is a menace, chasing around Salem and Lavender, and Ginny tells her all about it. 

Drew holds her as she cries.

 

(twelve)

Jackson looks at Scarlett like he wants to eat her alive, and he looks at Evangeline like he'd enjoy beating her to death. 

Ginny murmurs  _he probably gets off on it_  when she brings it up and Evangeline chokes on air. 

"I don't think I've ever heard you say something like that," Evangeline shrugs at Ginny's unimpressed look. 

Ginny rests her arms on her knees. She drops Evangeline's gaze. "Evangeline, I think you need to leave. I- We can take care of Drew but you need to get out before it gets worse."

Because it is getting worse, and the war isn't in their favor anymore if it ever was. Because it's going to get so much worse before the war is over. 

Evangeline closes her eyes. "I know."

 

(one)

She has thirteen new stitches the day she decides that today is the last day. She says goodbye to Caden and Drew and Ginny and waits until it's dark. 

And, of course, David catches her. 

She panics. Just a little bit. 

David exhales sharply. "Wait," He says, and because she's stupid, Evangeline does.

He comes back with one of his pistols. He presses it into her palm and curls her fingers around it, and Evangeline is bizarrely touched by it. 

David takes a step back. "Be safe," he says softly. 

Evangeline nods, and leaves. 


End file.
